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The NFL is serving a huge amount of division battles for Thursday's Thanksgiving Day Platter. Here's a preview of what to watch for at Chicago Bears at Detroit Lions; Washington Redskins at Dallas Cowboys; and Atlanta Falcons at New Orleans Saints.
Chicago Bears (7-3) vs. Detroit Lions (4-6)
1. Eighty-eight hours after their monumental victory over their Minnesota rival, the Bears face again the rivalry with NFC North, this time in Detroit. Chicago's three-and-a-half day play week is the shortest break between games since 2000, according to NFL Research. The short week comes at the worst time for the Bears, who are in dire need of recovery. Mitchell Trubisky has not coached in the last two days after being hurt slightly in the shoulder late in the Bears' Sunday night win over Minnesota. QB up may not be available in time for 12:30. The departure of ET, which means that Daniel Chase would start his first match since 2014. Trubisky was unstoppable in the first meeting between Chicago and Detroit, 11 days ago only, when he had thrown three touchdowns with a score of 148, 6. But Trubisky's last match at Ford Field was one of his worst; then rookie, quarterback Bears made three choices in a 10-point loss. If Trubisky can not go – the Bears are cautiously optimistic – expect a good workload for Jordan Howard and Tarik Cohen against Damon Harrison and 24th in the race defense, even though the Lions keep Chicago at 2.5 yards per race their previous meeting.
2. Will Khalil Mack make Matthew Stafford look like a turkey in the backfield of the Lions? The defensive player of the year candidate is in the middle of a career year and has just played another match with a sack and a forced fumble. Facing the defenders of Chicago, which ranks third in the standings, Mack leads the standings in five forced fumbles. Facilitating Mack's life, his goal this week, Stafford, collapses like a pocket. The Lions veteran has averaged three sacks per game, a career high, and has been sacked by 33.9 per cent of the pressure in the past five games, including three defensemen. Stafford made two choices and was sacked six times in Chicago in Week 10. He got the second lowest passer of the season (74.9) against Mack's Bears. Before Mack and the Bears take a gallon of tryptophan, it is likely that they will feast on Stafford.
3. On his biggest stage of the season, Detroit will unfortunately be deprived of one of his offensive players. Offensive back Kerryon Johnson sprained his knee during the Lions' Panthers win and should miss two weeks. Fortunately, Johnson has avoided a serious tear in the ACL, but it is unfortunate that beginner football fans listen to the conversation to avoid conversations with their loved ones, Detroit's best half-offering since Barry Sanders will be out of play. Theo Riddick, LeGarrette Blount and newly promoted Zach Zenner are expected to replace the 20 touchdowns, 89 yards and two goals from that first game. Elsewhere on the Detroit attack, if Marvin Jones (knee) can not go, then that will be all Kenny Golladay in this November.
Washington Redskins (6-4) at the Dallas Cowboys (5-5)
1. Welcome to the game win-take-all (for a week)! This classic mid-Thursday between two historical rivals of the NFC East will decide, for a good ten days, which team will have the upper hand in the division before the end of the race. The Redskins led the way for a good part of the season thanks to a solid seventh front and a running game led by Adrian Peterson. But Washington has had a difficult time – the team, not the city, of course. The quarterback star of $ 94 million Redskins is lost for the season, just as their opponents in the division find theirs. Dallas (5-5) was pulled back on the back of Ezekiel Elliott, Amari Cooper and Leighton Vander Esch, winning consecutive wins for the first time this season. A Cowboy win over Jerry Jones and the Salvation Army would tie them to the top of the NFC East against Washington at 6-5. If Dallas loses, however, the Cowboys will essentially end up with two Skins games, as they will have lost both games against the division's leaders. The course of the division, and perhaps the history of the league, depends on this result. Better to catch a shoemaker and tune.
2. Colt McCoy, the famed Texas Longhorn and son of Lone Star State, returns to his home state as a quarter-starter of the hated rivals of the Cowboys – and this is not the first time. Alex Smith's replacement beat Dallas in overtime in 2014 by replacing injured Kirk Cousins on Monday night football. It was McCoy's last win in the NFL. Always the bridesmaid, never the bride in the benefits, McCoy is about to embark on a six-week wedding without a honeymoon period. He has not started a match since the 15th week of 2014, but he looked good last week scoring a goal. Let's see how he resists during a 60-minute game. The eleventh of Dallas, led by Vander Esch and DeMarcus Lawrence, is as healthy and vigorous as it has been in years, and since the 9th week, is putting pressure on the upper quarter to get 31 , 9% of falls (fourth of this period). Vander Esch, second DROY candidate, is second in the league with 61 solo tackles. With an extension similar to that of Khalil Mack, Lawrence totals 22.5 bags since 2017, making it a third place in the league. Washington's offensive line is a triage. The two starting guards "Skins" are Donezo Foshonzo and the All-Pro left tackle, Trent Williams, is debatable. In complete safety, McCoy will not receive a warm welcome from the team from his home country.
3. Do not look now – well, look if you want, it's a "free" country – but the Cowboys offense is waking up. Elliott runs as a rookie of the year behind an improved line of attack, likely benefiting from the departure of O-line coach Paul Alexander three weeks ago. Elliott is looking for a fourth game in a row with more than 100 yards in scrimmage, but could get in trouble with Matthew Ioannidis, Ryan Kerrigan and the Washington Sixth Race Defense. Dallas will stumble, but will not necessarily fight if the ground game does not take place because of a better air attack. The acquisition of Cooper, although controversial about compensation, has paid off at Dak Prescott and Co. Since the arrival of Cooper, Prescott has made fewer tight throws (down 9.7% ) and saw greater separation from his receivers (30th to 8th in the NFL). in three weeks) and achieved a 7.6% increase in its percentage completion. In addition, Cooper allows Dallas to comfortably use 11 people more often, forcing the defenses to play more nickel and stack fewer goals, easing the burden on Elliott.
Atlanta Falcons (4-6) at New Orleans Saints (9-1)
1. There may be no worse match-up than the Saints offense against the Falcons defense. I say that knowing full well that there are still two games left for the Raiders against the Chiefs. New Orleans is about to finish with the league's third-best league average (37.8 points per game), right ahead of Peyton Manning's 2013 Broncos and Tom Brady's 2007 Patriots. The Saints have scored more than 40 points in three consecutive games, including two against the defending Super Bowl champions and the mastodon Rams. Alvin Kamara and Mark Ingram lead the league with 20 scrum scores by a RB duo. Meanwhile, the Atlanta defense, riddled with wounds, is wading. The Falcons have allocated 27.6 PPGs and 405.2 YPGs this season, the two worst marks of last year and the year preceding the last 29th of the championship. Against leading assaults like New Orleans, Pittsburgh and even Cincinnati, the Falcons struggled to get off the field and allowed an average of 40.3 points per game. What is it that changes on Thursday night?
2. The race for the MVP is that of Drew Brees to lose. The future Hall of Fame has never won this honor, but it could change this historic season. The 40-year-old is leading the rankings in terms of completion percentage (76.9), TD-INT ratio (25: 1) and smuggling ratings (126.9). If the season ended today, it would act as records of a season. And what is scary is that it improves over the course of the season. In the past three weeks, Brees has almost equaled TD's total TD assists in her first seven games (14, 11). Although he may have fallen to rest Thursday night – Tre Quan Smith is not fit with a foot injury – Brees will live up to the reception options: Ingram, Kamara, Brandon Marshall (potentially ) and arguably the best catcher in the league, Michael Thomas. The third-year break led the league in terms of a percentage of receptions (90.1) yards after the shot (417) and is without a doubt the most reliable receiver Brees has had in an 18-year career. In five career games against Atlanta, Thomas averaged 107.8 yards per game. More recently in the ATL, Thomas caught 10 balls on 10 targets for 129 yards. Back home in the dome, expect the same from the vanquished and his MVP caliber shooter.
3 Wait, but what about Atlanta 's offense? Silence. I arrive there. Overlooked by their many holes in defense, the Falcons have more than well attacked and are among the best in the league. The offensive unit led by Matt Ryan ranks second behind YPG (314.6) and the completion percentage (71.1), just behind their NFC South rivals. While Brees is on his way to February loaded with gear, Ryan is the only player in the league to have completed at least 70% of his passes. and on average at least 300 YPG. Julio Jones left TD, leads the receiver standings (1,158) and has a revolutionary criminal partner. Calvin Ridley was unstoppable in his first game against the Saints, scoring three touchdowns in seven receptions. But the defense of New Orleans has declined since then, giving him only 21 points in his last two games. These clashes between the Falcons and the Saints are still tight, despite the glaring weaknesses of both teams. The last four games have been decided by an average of 6.3 points. Ryan's ability to keep pace with Brees is essential for this edition of the rivalry to remain within the bounds of a touchdown.
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